A former Chief Medical Officer has issued a plea for help for one of his patients who has been diagnosed with a rare heart condition.

Dr Josiah Rambally says the thirty five year old patient who is a resident of Canaries is in dire need of a surgery to be performed by specialists in Martinique, that can save his life.

So far Dr Rambally says he has been able to assist with the collection of more than half of the total cost of the procedure, but he still needs to raise an additional seventeen thousand dollars.

The call for assistance is among three that are being made on a national level. Dr Rambally says his patients chances of making a full recovery if he can get the treatment in time.

The former Chief Medical officer observes that the government is not able to afford the costly medical care for many of the medical conditions that are diagnosed. As a result he says patients who cannot afford the treatments are forced to seek financial donations.

Dr Rambally is not confident that the number of people requiring medical care overseas will decline, once the new national hospital is commissioned. that despite suggestions that the new national hospital will be a state of the art facility, he believes the facility lacks specialists and equipment to deal with complex medical conditions.